Lululemon Athletica Showroom

One recent morning while my 18month old daughter and I were out running errands, we decided to stop by Lululemon Athletica Showroom in St. Matthews.
It is located on Massey Ave. just off of Chenoweth Lane. Look for their red sign with their logo (a white stylized A with a red background) near the road to find the blue house with a parking lot next to it.
I was greeted by the friendly Kerry, who also teaches at B.You. Lululemon Athletica specializes in clothing for yoga, running, and other fitness interests. They are open at 10am Thursday through Saturday.
One of the reasons I wanted to check them out is that they offer FREE community classes each week! Each month they choose a fitness studio to highlight and offer classes through them. In the month of February, Pure Barre Summit is being featured. Each Friday, this month at 4:30pm, you can sign up to take the free class. More than likely you will be joined with several other people who are trying out the class for the first time. Next month, they are featuring 502 Power Yoga on Mondays starting at 7:30pm.
I was also able to meet with Barrett, the assistant manager. She showed me their table that has lots of information on local fitness studios, gyms, and classes. She has tried lots of classes herself, so she would be great to talk to about the different places if you have questions.
She also told me about Om Finder, an app through Lululemon that locates yoga classes for you wherever you go.
To keep up to date with their events and happenings, be sure to sign up for their newsletter by e-mailing them: louisville-showroom@lululemon.com.
Another great business helping Louisville get their fit in.

"If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you." Try something new.

PiYo with ProjectBody

Another week, another class to check out! If you have not noticed, Louisville has a wide offering of classes and gyms to get your fit in.

Continuation of my tour of all things fitness in Louisville, I checked out a PiYo class with ProjectBody. I found out about ProjectBody through my friend, Layna. She has followed the owner and instructor, Joshua Lakes, for over 5 years- which says alot about an instructor! After the class, I learned that Joshua had several other students that have been with him for over 3 years. Joshua is definitely doing his part in helping Louisville get some fit in!

The class meets in St. Matthews Station off of Shelbyville Rd. It is up on the 2nd floor in the APT Fitness room. As I walked in, I was welcomed by Joshua, filled out the standard form paperwork for being a new student, and found a place near the back to set-up my mat for the class. There were about 10 other women there ready for the class.

PiYo is a mix of Pilates and yoga. It combines the stretching of yoga and the strength and core of Pilates in one workout along with the controlled breathing and balancing. We started with a warm-up and then worked through different muscle groups for each song before cooling down. He demonstrated different levels of difficulties for the exercises depending on your fitness level. He kept reminding us to breath  (which is always a good thing!) and asked us if we could feel the muscle working. If you did not feel the muscle getting worked, you need to push yourself a little harder.  It definitely gets your heart rate going!

I really liked how we focused on different muscles groups for a song and the movements were well planned out to fit in with the music. One of the exercises was jack knives with criss cross which you need to check out the class to try for yourself! Joshua has a large repertoire of songs to make each class fresh and challenging, but yet a routine working the muscle groups in the same order each time.

Comfortable workout clothes that are not too restrictive is ideal for the class. Along with a water bottle, a towel, and a yoga mat is all you need to bring.

The classes are very affordable! Mention you are a Fit In Lou reader and your first class is free and you can get $5 off a class pack - (5 classes for $25 or month rate of $45)! He teaches PiYo on Mondays and Saturdays. Tuesdays, he offers PUMP class where you need to have your own weight set, but he has a set you can borrow if you want to try it before purchasing your own set. On Wednesdays he leads Fusion Yoga.  A nice variety to get your fit in each week!

What are you waiting for? Write one of his classes on your schedule and check it out!

Do you have another class or gym I should check out? E-mail me at fitinlou@gmail.com

***Be sure to check out the other reviews: b.silque, trapeze, Zumba, Insanity, Hwang's Martial Arts, Mighty Momz, Pure Fitness Training**

Fitness on the Weekend : February 21, 22, 23

A nice change of pace for the weather this week! Hope you have been enjoying it!
If you are not participating in the Triple Crown - Anthem 5K this weekend, there is still plenty of ways to have fun and get your fit in.

Friday -
Black Light Zumba - $3 - FitMe Studio - 7pm

Saturday -

Burrito Riders - https://www.facebook.com/BurritoRiders Grab your bikes and pass out breakfast burritos to the homeless. Check the website and facebook page for meeting location and times. Or if you just want to make burritos - check them out!

PiYo - $8 drop-in or mention you are a Fit in Lou reader and your first class is free - Just need a mat.

Rainbow Blossom Free Yoga

Sunday -

Spin Class - VO2 Multisport - FREE - Bring your bike and trainer (They also offer free yoga for athletes on Mondays)
Sweaty Sheep Yoga - FREE
Zumba - FitMe Studio - $8 for drop-ins

"Wake up with determination.

Go to bed with satisfaction."

Pure Fitness Training

After Adam's recommendation and reading about his fitness journey with Pure Fitness Training, I knew I needed to check them out. Recently, I was able take my first ever boot camp class there.  I met Mike Jett, the owner and instructor of the boot camp class I tried.

Pure Fitness Training is true to its name.

Pure:  Merriam-Webster defines pure as "not mixed with anything else." Walking into the fitness studio and setting my stuff along the wall with everyone else's things, I noticed it had the basics - a bathroom, a water fountain, and the equipment needed for each workout station. Everything a gym needed to be successful. Keep it simple. It allows for you to get in and out and on with your day in about 60 minutes.

Fitness:  Merriam-Webster defines fitness as a "condition of being physically fit and healthy." Pure has boot camps offered everyday except for Sundays. The intention of these boot camps is to get you on the road to being healthy and fit. The class included stretching and a dynamic warm-up (ie running, side stepping. skipping, high knees, some resistant band exercises) before getting to the meat of the class - the circuit.

After the warm-up, we broke off into groups of 3-4 to one of about 7-8 stations.  At each station, you would complete two different exercises - strength /metabolic cardio. Each exercise lasted 30 seconds. So for 3 minutes you stayed at the station switching between the two different exercises every 30 seconds with a short break. After the 3 minutes, you moved to the next station - grabbing a drink as needed, until you have completed all of them for a full body workout.

Training - Merriam-Webster defines training as "teaching a person a particular skill." This was definitely happening in this class. There were 3 trainers (including Mike the owner) during the whole class. Bernard warmed us up demonstrating the exercises as needed to the new ones like myself. Prior to starting the stations, Bernard and Madison demonstrated the exercises, while Mike explained the 2-3 different difficult levels of each exercise, so any fitness level can do this workout. Once the stations were in progress, the trainers were actively watching us to not only help us get started since that was alot to remember, but also to make sure we had the proper technique. Mike kept track of the time and yelled out half way time and time to switch. Since this was my first time, Mike paired me up with a regular, Erny. She was a tremendous help demonstrating the exercises again for me so I knew what to do. All the trainers are either working on or hold at least a bachelor's in exercise physiology/science.

"Never throw in the towel.

Use it to wipe off the sweat. 

Then keep going."

Pure Fitness Training provides what you need to get a great workout. If you are looking for a group environment to push yourself, have it scheduled in your day to get it in, or just starting to work out, this is a place to try. Mike said the stations vary to keep it interesting and challenging. The ones we had in our class varied from bear crawling to slamming a sledge hammer on a tractor tire (my favorite), slamming a medicine ball down to push-ups with the TRX.

There was probably a little over 20 people in the class with a wide range of ages and split probably between male and females. You can see how they have designed the program for all levels in mind.
Their website is informative with info such as the new client checklist with scheduling an orientation first and what to bring. In addition, it shows you how to find the gym located in Mellwood Arts Center which I highly recommend watching if you have never been there before.  Classes are offered Monday through Saturday(morning and evening) with a monthly fee depending how many classes per week you are coming. Check them out and experience it for yourself just like Adam got started with his fitness journey.


***Be sure to check out the other reviews: b.silque, trapeze, Zumba, Insanity, Hwang's Martial Arts, Mighty Momz**

Erika's Fitness Journey with Beach Body

As I sit here writing this I look back at the last 9 months and am in awe of how far I have come and all the changes that I have made heck I rode my first century ride last year because of this! 

My Fitness and Health journey started last May 2013, I was 9 months postpartum from having my second baby,  where I was being active 2-3 times a week, eating what I thought was healthy 60% of the time and had told myself I was happy with where I was mentally and physically, but who was I kidding I wasn’t. A friend of mine from high school who had just become a beachbody coach, was 6 months postpartum from her first kiddo, and reached out to me and asked if I wanted to be in an accountability challenge group run through a private setting on Facebook. If you know me you know I NEVER pass up a challenge, so I said YES and dove right in! She told me we would be working out 5-6 days a week and eating clean! I dusted off my copy of P90X ( that I had used post baby number 1 and maybe lasted 30 days lol) and planned to incorporate that on the days that I couldn’t get to the local barre studio that I was going to.

 I have to be honest I participated in the first month but I did not really change my eating I was always under the mindset that calories were calories it didn’t matter what you were eating rather how hard you worked, sound familiar to anyone?? BOY was I WRONG! You can not out exercise a bad diet, I totally learned this the second challenge when I started tracking what I was eating, replaced one meal a day or a snack with Shakeology and stuck to a new workout schedule! For the first time in my life working out was FUN and something I began to look forward to. It became my mental me time and NOT my punishment for eating something that was unhealthy or “unclean”. Come the end of June my body really started to transform and my clothes started fitting differently. For the first time since having kids my stomach was flat and I had ABS! Something I just thought had to be given up after you have kids lol. Mentally I started feeling happier, I wasn’t so depressed anymore, or moody, and I wasn’t tired! I had more energy to play with my kids and didn’t feel like I had to take a nap every day when they did. I also for the first time since 2004 didn’t have KNEE pain. I have had two knees surgeries and thought  I was stronger and would just have to deal with the pain, but I realized now after 3 months of really focusing on my health and fitness that all of this was becoming a myth and a lie that I was telling myself. I was down to my pre pregnancy weight but I was never stronger!! 

Come July my friend who had been my “coach” for the past couple months approached me and said “hey you should really become a coach” your story is inspiring and your transformation is awesome, the other challengers really look up to you and I think you would be really good at this yourself.” I kind of laughed at her at first then started to say WHY NOT??! Why wouldn’t I be a good coach?? Why couldn’t I help people start to feel as good as I do?? I then began to believe it, just had to convince my husband to jump on board with the idea :). It wasn’t until October 24th that I signed up to be a BeachBody Coach, and I ran my first accountability challenge group the second week of November. I had over 60 women in that first group wanting to make similar changes to better themselves and to be better role models for their children or families. Some had a lot to lose but everyone had so much to gain mentally! 

This group was amazing and for the first time I was doing something that made me SO happy and fulfilled. Work didn’t seem like work it was fun! I loved waking up in the morning and seeing everyones progress and posts. I was not only helping to keep them accountable but they were helping me! We were becoming a FITFAM and women I have never even met were inspiring me and lifting others up in so many good ways. These groups almost give you a natural high, a euphoria, a comfort. They are there to pull you out of a funk and push you forward! I am currently running my fourth group and at the end of my last I had a couple challengers make the most drastic changes yet 12 lbs lost, 7.5 inches gone, and all because we were putting in time to sweat and filling our bodies with good clean food. Life is too short to be unhappy with how you look and feel. There is always time for health and exercise. I am not on a diet and never again will I be I have made a lifestyle change and it has stuck because I did it the slow and steady way! I have done things in the past year that I NEVER thought I would be able to do, I rode my first century ride and I am training for my first Mini. 

I run these challenge groups every 30 days on facebook and am always looking for new faces to join our journey! Friend me on facebook and I would love to message you more info! 

Mighty Momz Class

As moms, it is difficult to find time for everything that we would like to do. Fortunately, Coach Nicole (also a mom!) of the Mighty Titans, can help you get your fit in! She has developed an express fitness program for moms.

Continuing my journey of exploring all things fitness in Louisville, I recently had a chance to chat with Nicole about her Mighty Momz class and go through a Success session. Upon meeting Nicole for the session, I was very impressed with her enthusiasm and warm welcome to help put my nerves at ease. This session is the first thing you need to do to get started in the Mighty Momz class. This 30 minute assessment will go over things like your health - (including past injuries), calculate your percent body fat, posture evaluation, and work together to come up with attainable health and fitness goals, so be sure to wear some workout clothes. She is very thorough and takes her time explaining everything of what she is doing and why. This assessment will help her develop an exercise prescription for you. For example, for me she noticed my left side was slightly higher than the other and my upper body caved in a little - all this was news to me.  With these in mind and having my percent body fat in an acceptable range, she recommended (aka prescribed) I gain more muscle mass to help improve my core which in turn would help my posture. Also, she encouraged using a foam roller for recovery training.

 The  next step would be to meet with her in one of the group session 1-3x/week. This is a 45 minute workout that includes warm-up, workout, cool-down, and a question and answer session - including some nutritional tips. During the week, you will do the exercises as prescribed from your success session on your own. This program is setup to continue to boost your metabolism for 36 hours post workout and build muscle tissues. Nicole is constantly evolving your workouts to keep you getting stronger and fitter.

What makes this unique is that Coach Nicole is offering personal training in a group setting. She has over 20 years of personal training experience, certified in pre- and post-natal,  and a master's degree in exercise physiologist. She has a wealth of knowledge to answer all your questions. You get all the benefits of one-on-one without the high price. She holds you accountability  - if she does not see you at the workout, she will contact you to make sure you are okay. If you have questions when you are home - she is available via e-mail or phone to help you out. The personal training is with the group price of $20-25/session.  The only equipment you would need is a foam roller and some resistance bands for her training which means her training you can do anywhere and anytime!

Another good thing about the Mighty Moms class is that you can enroll anytime and the success session and the first week is FREE! If you are unhappy, you can stop anytime, risk-free. The classes are being offered at 10am at Mockingbird and 8:30am in Crestwood. Mockingbird offers soccer classes for 18months up to 3 years at 10am with  open enrollment for those kids whose moms is enrolled in the Mighty Momz class. Not only can you get your fit in, but your kids can have some fun too!

If you do not already, you should follow Mighty Titans on Facebook. She posts exercises, nutritional tips and more to keep you going on your fitness journey.

If you need some accountability, need one-on-one to start working out, you definitely should give Nicole an e-mail! As a coach, she wants you to be successful. She meets you right where your fitness level is at today and will work alongside with you, encouraging you to attain your goals.

Weekend Workouts - February 14, 15, 16

Valentine's Weekend has finally arrived! Hopefully you have a fun weekend planned  with some active things in there as well. Don't forget to check out the post for active things to do this Valentine's if you need some ideas.

This weekend has lots of free classes. There are also a few organized runs that would be fun to do.

Here are just a few from picks from the calendar:

Jazzercise - One free class Friday, Saturday, or Sunday!

Louisville Brew Mile - Saturday - $5 for a mile run/walk with Blue Mile starting at Hein Bros at 1449 Bardstown Rd. and finished with a cup of coffee.

 CrossFit Regeneration - Saturday - Free class -  Email to let them know you are coming

Yoga - Sunday - FREE - Rainbow Blossom - A Taste of Yoga is a weeklong event at Rainbow Blossom of free yoga classes!

Don’t wait until you’ve reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching that goal.